tulating him on his brave stand. It had been the first
notice from big men he had ever been able to attract to himself, and it
had gone to his head like wine. Give that up for a few miserable
cowboys! It might get into the papers and go back East. He must think of
his reputation.

"That's just where the dynamics of the thing comes in, brother," said
Jasper Kemp, patronizingly. "We're here to _make_ you believe in a hell.
We're the force that will bring you back into the right way of thinkin'
again. Are you ready, boys?"

The quiet utterance brought goose-flesh up to West's very ears, and his
eyes bulged with horror.

"Oh, that isn't necessary! I believe--yes, I believe in hell!" he
shouted, as they seized him.

But it was too late. The Rev. Frederick West was plunged into the
water-hole, from whose sheep-muddied waters he came up spluttering,
"Yes, I believe in _hell_!" and for the first time in his life, perhaps,
he really did believe in it, and thought that he was in it.

The men were standing knee-deep in the water and holding their captive
lightly by his arms and legs, their eyes upon their leader, waiting now.

Jasper Kemp stood in the water, also, looking down benevolently upon his
victim, his chin in his hand, his elbow in his other hand, an attitude
which carried a feeling of hopelessness to the frightened minister.

"An' now there's that little matter of the devil," said Jasper Kemp,
reflectively. "We'll just fix that up next while we're near his place of
residence. You believe in the devil, Mr. Parson, from now on? If you'd
ever tried resistin' him I figger you'd have b'lieved in him long ago.
But _you believe in him_ from _now on_, an' you _don't preach against
him any more_! We're not goin' to have our Arizona men gettin' off their
guard an' thinkin' their enemy is dead. There _is_ a devil, parson, and
you believe in him! Duck him, boys!"

Down went the minister into the water again, and came up spluttering,
"Yes, I--I--I--believe--in-the--devil." Even in this strait he was loath
to surrender his pet theme--no devil.

"Very well, so far as it goes," said Jasper Kemp, thoughtfully. "But
now, boys, we're comin' to the most important of all, and you better
put him under about three times, for there mustn't be no mistake about
this matter. You believe in the Bible, parson--_the whole Bible_?"

"Yes!" gasped West, as he went down the first time and got a mouthful of
the bitter water, "I believe--" The